Alexander Roslin was born at Malmoe, Sweden. He worked in Paris as a portrait painter, where, in 1752, he met British architect William Chambers and, in 1753, became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. In 1766, he helped the Swedish painter and engraver Elias Martin (1739-1818) to enrol at the Académie. Roslin married a French artist, Marie Suzanne Giroust, whose success as in pastel work was such that she was elected an Associate of the Académie. After her death in Paris in 1772, Roslin returned for a time to Sweden and subsequently painted in Russia. The National Gallery in Stockholm has a number of portraits of Gustaf III and his family by Roslin.
